Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
allocated to various entities, according to Southern Nevada Water
Authority's Pat Mulroy. Yet it is estimated that the river's annual
fl ow today is closer to 11 million to 12 million acre-feet a year, espe-
cially when one factors in evaporation.
“There are more water rights, more legitimate claims of need
and use, in these areas than can possibly be satisfi ed under pres-
ent hydrological conditions,” says Colorado and Rio Grande basin
expert Steve Mumme. “Part of that was bad planning, a little of it
was bad law, and most of it was just a poor understanding of Mother
Nature. Increasing development has placed increasing demands
on the Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. And, in the last fi fty
years, we have become much more attentive to the quality as well
as the quantity of water. We can't just deliver 1.5 million acre-feet
of saline water to Mexico. That's not legal under the interpreta-
tion of the 1944 water treaty.”
Regional demand for water is increasing just as Mother Nature
has stopped cooperating, Mumme adds. “Whether that's due to sys-
temic human-induced climate change or other processes indepen-
dent of human beings is immaterial. The fact is there is less water
with much higher demand, so that means stiff competition for the
resource in the West,” Mumme says.
It's that world water equation again:
Growing demand
Limited supply
Shortage and confl ict
over what's left
SHOULD YOU CARE?
The average person pays little attention to all this mumbo-jumbo
about water rights. If water comes out of the faucet when you need
it, that's all that seems to matter. That is, unless your lawn looks
parched one day, so you turn on the outdoor faucet and end up
with a ticket for breaking the law—in this case, watering your lawn
in violation of restrictions imposed because of a water shortage.
That's hardly a far-fetched scenario. In fact, it's reality in many
places coast to coast in the twenty-fi rst century. If you haven't yet
faced voluntary or mandatory water restrictions where you live
during at least part of the year, you may well face them in the
